Leadership Meeting in South Africa Confronts Bitter Divisions in the A.N.C.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — When the leaders of the African National Congress gathered here in January to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of their party, there was Champagne, a cake the size of a Ping-Pong table and a festive mood in the air.

But as thousands of delegates from the A.N.C., Africa’s oldest liberation movement, gather this week for a conference to choose new leaders, the party is facing a crisis unlike any since white rule ended in 1994.

Nelson Mandela, the president who ushered in a new era of democracy and freedom and in many ways remains the symbolic and moral center of the party, has been in the hospital for more than a week while undergoing treatment for a lung infection and gallstones. He is 94, and his prognosis is uncertain.

The party is deeply and bitterly divided between those who want to see the current president, Jacob Zuma, elected for another five-year term, and those seeking a fresh start for a party rocked by scandal and fierce public anger over deepening inequality, stark poverty and joblessness.

Mr. Zuma’s deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, is seeking to unseat Mr. Zuma as the leader of the party, and presumably as president once national elections are held in 2014. As the conference got under way, supporters of Mr. Zuma sang songs to praise him and held up two fingers, a show of support for his second-term bid. Others rolled their hands, miming soccer fans calling for a player to be substituted, a gesture of support for Mr. Motlanthe.

The A.N.C. has had bruising leadership battles before, particularly the fierce fight between Mr. Zuma and his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, at the previous leadership conference in 2007, leading to Mr. Mbeki’s ouster as party chief. But now, whoever leads the A.N.C. faces not just a divided party, but also a nation in crisis.

The killing of 34 striking miners by the police in August further stoked the kind of anger seen in often-violent protests by the poor against miserable living conditions and ineffective services. The killings widened the gulf between the A.N.C., which bills itself as the protector of the downtrodden, and the millions of black South Africans who have given it outsize electoral mandates for nearly two decades.

Strikes in mining and other sectors have taken a toll on South Africa’s economy, Africa’s largest. Already tepid growth forecasts have been slashed, and credit rating agencies lowered South Africa’s debt rating for the first time since the end of apartheid.

Photo

A supporter of President Jacob Zuma at the leadership conference of the African National Congress party in Bloemfontein.Credit
Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Corruption has fueled disillusionment. Campaigns for local political positions and the spoils they offer have turned violent, most recently with the killing of a senior A.N.C. official from North West Province the day before the conference here began.

Mr. Zuma is no stranger to allegations of graft himself — he faced a bevy of charges that were dismissed on technical grounds before he became president in 2009. A widening scandal over improvements to his homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal, which have been reported as costing $27 million, has affected his popularity.

An audit of Mr. Zuma’s personal finances, completed as part of a police investigation into corruption charges and published this month by The Mail and Guardian, an investigative weekly paper, revealed a politician living far beyond his means and dependent on wealthy benefactors to bail him out on overdue car and house payments.

Senior members of the party, stalwarts of the long struggle against apartheid, are stepping aside. Trevor Manuel, who leads the government’s planning commission and has been a powerful, internationally respected figure for years, declined a nomination to the party’s executive committee.

“If everything is a competition, you destroy values,” Mr. Manuel was quoted as saying in The City Press, a Sunday paper. He said he hoped to help a new generation of leaders emerge from the party.

Jeremy Cronin, another senior figure with a reputation for integrity, also declined to serve another term on the powerful executive committee, citing overwork. Both men had served on the committee for more than two decades under four presidents.

Mr. Zuma addressed thousands of delegates gathered here in Bloemfontein on Sunday in a vast tent on a university campus, calling for unity and defending the accomplishments of his government.

“We want to dismiss the perceptions that our country is falling apart,” Mr. Zuma said. “We do have a plan to grow the economy and create jobs.”

But he acknowledged that much work remains to be done: South Africa has too few jobs, schools that fail students and one of the highest levels of inequality in the world.

Photo

Kgalema MotlantheCredit
Themba Hadebe/Associated Press

“The income of the average white household remains six times that of the average African household,” Mr. Zuma said. “Close to 1.9 million African households reported no income at all.”

The leadership conference will also seek to settle contentious debates over government policy. The party is under pressure to deliver on its promises. Some factions within the party have sought to steer the country to the left, advocating nationalization of mines and seizure of white-owned land. Others have argued such moves would scare off investors and destabilize the economy even further.

“The party is struggling on the most basic level to deliver,” said Aubrey Matshiqi, a veteran political analyst. “Even if it can agree on policy, can it implement?”

Mr. Motlanthe, a former trade union leader with deep roots in the struggle against apartheid, served briefly as president after Mr. Zuma ousted Mr. Mbeki.

“Kgalema Motlanthe as a fresh leader will be able to inspire hope in our people,” said Peter Ngobeni, a delegate from Limpopo Province. “He stands out among a few to take us to Canaan, out of this unsuccessful leadership and into a better life.”

But Mr. Motlanthe faces stiff odds. Nonbinding votes by the A.N.C.’s provincial branches this month gave Mr. Zuma a substantial lead, and he is expected to win handily.

With the president almost certain to return in the top spot, speculation has shifted to who will be his deputy. In that race, a seemingly unlikely candidate has emerged as a favorite: Cyril Ramaphosa, the union leader turned business tycoon who has become a lightning rod for criticism that the A.N.C. has grown too close to the wealthy business elite.

Mr. Ramaphosa led the National Union of Mineworkers as a firebrand labor activist in the 1980s and organized the country’s biggest mine strike in 1987. He was a central figure in the negotiations that ended apartheid and in the drafting of the country’s new Constitution, but narrowly missed being named as Mr. Mandela’s successor in 1994.

At Mr. Mandela’s urging, he went into business, investing in everything from fast food franchises to cellphones, growing spectacularly wealthy with deals under new policies designed to encourage black ownership of businesses. Mr. Ramaphosa’s business interests have sometimes got him into trouble: he serves on the board of directors of Lonmin, the platinum mining company whose striking workers were killed by the police this year.

Despite the fractures within the party, Mr. Zuma strove for a note of conciliation. The 70-year-old president, known for his sonorous singing voice and shuffling dance moves, declined to sing his signature song, “Bring Me My Machine Gun,” substituting a song from the Mandela era instead:

“The road we are on is long,” he sang, “we will meet on freedom day.”

Mukelwa Hlatshwayo contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on December 17, 2012, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Leadership Meeting in South Africa Confronts Bitter Divisions in the A.N.C. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe